Philadelphia: An Urban Foodie Hike

9th Street in Philadelphia’s Italian Market

Not every great hike takes place in the wilderness. 

Yes, most of my favorites involve mountain vistas, dense forests or remote deserts, but a few include world class delis, amazing bakeries and inviting coffee shops.  This one has all of those, plus a dose of American history and enough great food to warrant bringing a cooler for your car ride home.

The Italian Market in Philadelphia is one of the last remaining authentic “Little Italy” communities in urban America.  Yes, Manhattan has a cluster of high-quality Italian dining choices and Baltimore has its Little Italy that caters to tourists and locals, but Philadelphia has what feels like one of the last gritty, authentic Italian sections where you half expect to run into Vito Corleone buying fruit on his way home from the olive oil shop.

South Street is the traditional line of demarcation and a good place to begin your hike.  The street runs east/west from the Schuylkill River to the Delaware River and is lined with shops, restaurants and homes and is a great place to people watch and also home to much of Philly’s night life.  Park in the South Street Garage at the intersection of 10^th street and you can walk east nearly to the Delaware River for lunch and a stroll among some of Philadelphia’s oldest and most interesting homes. 

But once you have stretched your legs, the real action is on 9^th Street, from South Street south to Washington Avenue.  This takes you through the Italian Market, a string of bakeries, historic cheese, meat, seafood and spice shops; coffee shops, and cafes that have been serving traditional Italian food for more than 100 years.  The sidewalks are lined with produce and fish stands run by characters so colorful you would think the whole place was a product of Central Casting. 

Need a freshly dressed rabbit, exotic vegetable, imported cheese or 25 year old balsamic vinegar?  This place has got it.  It’s a walk worth the sights alone, but you will regret not bringing a cooler if you enjoy good food at home.  Here are a few of my recommended stops:

The best Cheese & Meat shop:  Claudio Specialty Foods,  924 South 9^th St.  There are some who prefer nearby’s DiBruno Brother’s, but Claudio’s is less polished, more authentic and a more fun experience.  The meats and cheeses handing from the ceiling are not props.  Ask for samples and try what Italian food is supposed to taste like. 

For Breakfast/lunch:  Sabrina’s Café at 910 Christian Street.  This café at the intersection of 9^th and Christian is a hugely popular breakfast and lunch spot, with weekend crowds waiting in line for their stuffed French toast and other specialties.  Off peak is best, and while not an Italian eatery, it’s a shame to miss the opportunity to have lunch when you are so close.

The Best Coffee shop:  Anthony’s Coffee Shop on 9^th Street.  This historic coffee house still roasts their own beans; make a great espresso and their candy and pastries have become so popular that they have opened a nearby annex just for food and gift baskets. 

Amazing bakery:  Isgro Bakery on Christian Street.  Good luck getting out of that place empty handed. 

Finally, for perfect Italian Sausage, the best place to go is Fiorella’s on Christian Street.  The reason that there sausage is so good is because that’s all they make – for over 100 years. 

The restaurant choices run from great take-out to great traditional Italian dinners, but one of the benefits is that many of the places are BYOB and a couple still cash only, so you can enjoy a great meal without paying the normal mark-up of restaurant wine lists.

So pick a day, pack a cooler (empty) and enjoy one of my favorite urban hikes where at the end the pain will more likely be from a full stomach than sore feet.

Leave the Kid, Take the iPad?

The bumper sticker on my truck says “Take A Kid Birding”. My personal mantra has always been based on getting outside and unplugged from technology.

But lately I have become an enthusiastic supporter of my new hiking buddy: the iPad.

At first it seemed absurd. Then just silly. Finally I just did it, although I immediately felt guilty the first time I slipped my iPad in my backpack for a day hike. Kind of like using wi-fi at a camp ground or watching TV in a tent. It’s just wrong. But since I was alone, I figured no one would have to know.

I take seriously the scoldings of Aldo Leopold when he warned against “A gadget industry that pads the bumps against nature-in-the-raw”. (Did he really say “pad”?!) But I have a propensity to lose trails and miss landmarks. (Most of the time by accident). And those inspired notes along the trail scrawled in a notebook never seem to make it into a digital record.

So that first iPad-accompanied hike started with the convenience of snapping a photo of the trail map at the trail head to accompany the trail guide I had down loaded from the internet and could pull up on screen. And then using the electronic bird guide applications instead the books – even getting dive bombed by a flock of mountain chickadees in reaction to the very realistic bird calls of the Audobon Guide. And the camera. And the electronic copy of Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire for a little quiet trail reading. If this thing could throw a spark and open a can, it would be perfect (I’m sure someone at Apple is working on that for the iPad 4).

Turns out the iPad Is also a blessing for the lazy blogger. I find that during a hike, the notes written on paper never seem to make it out of the notebook, and the unrecorded inspiration just doesn’t sound quite as inspired hours or days after returning to the business of everyday life. So what better tool to capture a few thoughts in the middle of a hike, a funny scene, or to snap a photo that can be instantly captioned and slipped into a blog post.

I know that Aldo might scoff. And I’m sure that old Edward Abbey would more likely use the iPad as a level place to rest his beer and possibly tamp out a cigar. But maybe if I beg a little forgiveness to their poetic judgement and promise to use it only for good (no Angry Birds on the trail), then maybe I will feel a little less guilty and produce a little better blog post.

Watching 2 Fishermen

I observed 2 fishermen down by the river as they attempted unsuccessfully to share the same fishing spot. They eyed each other warily.

The first, a tall quiet fellow dressed in blue and gray, quietly standing and watching. He is the year-round resident, the “local”, whose home sits hidden back in the woods. He does not appreciate the company that has come upon him.

The other fellow is a short, loud fisherman dressed in speckled white and brown. He is a seasonal visitor who has build his large house directly on the water for everyone to see. He is loud and splashes about, unaware that his actions seem to irritate the tall, quiet fellow with whom he shares a riverbank.

Finally in disgust, the tall fellow can take it no more and leaves the spot to his noisy, raucous neighbor. The blue heron rises up and glides gracefully away over the river, seemingly reminding the seasonal osprey with a rattling call that it is he, the heron who fishes the river through the entire year.

Hiking the Cliffs of Maryland’s Eastern Shore

Cliffs along the Chesapeake Bay

When people picture the Chesapeake Bay from the vantage of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, they usually picture vast marshes fading out into the open water of the Bay, or gently sloping farmland down to quiet tidal creeks and rivers.  Yet one well-kept secret spot in Kent County Maryland features dramatically rising cliffs overlooking the shoreline providing incredible views and spectacular sunsets.  It’s not easily accessible or well-marked, but it is publically owned and a perfect foil for the otherwise crowded venues of Kent Island or Ocean City.  It also offers the opportunity to walk through a working waterfront farm – something unusual among other state-owned preserves.

 Sassafras Natural Resource Area in Kennedyville, Maryland is a 1100 acre working farm open for public hiking, paddling and picnicking.  Rescued from development mainly through the vigilance of former Congressman Wayne Gilchrest in the early 1990’s, the state has (blessedly) done almost nothing with this property except put in a gravel access road and hammer a few signs to mark walking trails.  The preserve is adjacent to Turners Creek State Park where you can put in a kayak, canoe or (if you must) motorized boat making access to its beaches possible by water rather than on foot.  

 Sassafrass (known locally as Bloomfield Farm) was the working farm and property of the Maytag Family (yes, that Maytag) eventually becoming a notorious commune and artists’ retreat in the 60’s.  The property still features ample evidence of its past, including  the footprints of several demolished homes, various plantings including 100-year old boxwoods, and a few overgrown outbuildings.  Much of the property is still leased for private farming and open to hunting in the fall, but it is basically a gorgeous and undiscovered playground along the bay perfect for kids to romp across fields, through woods and along miles of undeveloped bay-front beaches.

 If you start a hike at the parking lot at the end of the gravel entrance road, you walk west out onto the property via a farm lane and eventually come to a crossroads in what is the middle of a waterfront peninsula.    To the right (north) is a youth camp site with a trail to the beach, to the left (south) is an overlook of Lloyd’s creek, and straight ahead is the “Old Lodge” trail that takes you to the footprint of the main house of this storied old property.  At the end of any of these trails you can walk down to the beach, and if you manage to time your visit at low tide, you can walk along the beach under the cliffs from the Old Lodge trail north to the beach below Lloyd’s Creek overlook.  On the walk out along  the old lodge trail, take the side trail to the right to check out the beautiful tidal pond overlook.   When finding the beach below the old lodge footprint, check out the spectacular cliff top overlooks and  thick bamboo forest near the beach. 

 The property also features a huge tidal pond with a narrow inlet perfect for riding the swift currents of the incoming and outgoing tides.  Our favorite summer trip is to put canoes in at the adjoining Turners Creeks State Park boat ramp, paddle south along the shoreline about a mile to the entrance of the tidal pond, then spend a day picnicking on the narrow spit of land separating the pond from the bay exploring the vast shallow pond and its myriad of aquatic life. 

Farm Road through Sassafrass Natural Resource Center

 

For those unfamiliar with nearby Chestertown, it is worth a stop for a hand-mixed vanilla or cherry coke at Stam’s drugstore downtown on High Street.  Kids get a kick of watching sodas still mixed with syrup by hand at the old-fashioned counter.  And while Chestertown feature many very good restaurants down town, for a casual bite after a day of hiking or paddling, I recommend a stop in The Freeze on Washington Avenue (still called Downey’s if you happen to ask a local for directions).  It’s a vintage takeout joint which reminds you what friend chicken and cheese burgers tasted like before the franchise guys took over the world.

An Easy Hike Through MD and DE

This is the place where my love affair with the outdoors began. The White Clay Creek is a scenic creek that runs through Chester County, Pennsylvania into Delaware before eventually joining the Christiana River and then the Delaware Bay. It runs near my childhood home where growing up we would stop to get wet on our way back from the local country store. In the summer we would spend entire days wandering the banks, fishing or tubing with old tire tubes from my dad’s farm.

Today the creek is surrounded by several thousand acres of state park created when a long time plan to flood the entire White Clay Creek Valley for hydro-electric power was finally abandoned in 1986 and the land donated to the states of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Since then states have (for the most part) resisted the normal government urge to pave and improve the park, and instead left it to the natural state I remember when it was a patchwork of farms and forests.

Through a network of converted rail beds, abandoned farm roads and improved foot paths, you can follow a trail – consisting mostly of the Mason Dixon Trail – along the White Clay Creek for more than 6 miles from Landenberg Pennsylvania into the outskirts of Newark, Delaware. My favorite features of the walk besides following this scenic steam are the many abandoned stone trestles left over from the Pomeroy Railroad line that ran along much of the current trail until 1929. The trail winds through woods, over bridges and along forest edged meadows. It is a perfect walk year round with tree cover to protect from both winter winds and summer sun. When it’s warm, the trail offers dozens of perfect spots for kids to wade in the creek.

The magic of this place is in its subtlety. Instead of mountain views of grand waterfalls, there are quiet places and the smell of forest. Look for hawks working the hayfields and belted kingfishers rattling their claim to sections of the creek. The walk is also relatively flat, so suitable for a strolling pace.

Pick up the trail at a variety of parking areas – including parking area #1 in Landenberg, PA near the intersection of Good Hope Road and London Tract Road. On the Delaware end, parking lots and trail heads are much better marked and include a modest visitor’s center.

For picnic provisions, stop at the nearby Landenberg Market and if the weather is warm, make a pit stop at Woodside Farm Creamery right over the Delaware line for some great homemade ice cream, and if you are lucky, a little impromptu bluegrass music.

Winter at Eastern Neck Island National Wildlife Refuge

Winter is the best time for a visit to the Delmarva’s national wildlife refuges. No Mosquitos, fewer visitors and ironically, the best time of year to see migratory waterfowl and birds of prey.

While Dorchester County’s Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and Delaware’s Bombay Hook NWR are the most well known, my favorite is the less visited Eastern Neck Island in Kent County near Rock Hall Maryland. This island, accessible by bridge, was established as a refuge for the endangered Delmarva Fox Squirrel, and offers 8 miles of trails and roads around more than 2000 acres of marsh and woodland. In the summer it is a hot spot for recreational crabbing and a great place to paddle a kayak, but in the winter it serves as home for hundreds of thousands of migrating waterfowl.

On a recent visit with Anthony his birder-friend Henry, we were greeted at the wooden entrance bridge by a pair of immature Bald Eagles and within a hour’s time saw three more. We also saw hawks, kestrels, thousands of geese and a variety of ducks, including buffleheads, mergansers, and wigeons. There are several walkways which offer great viewing spots for waterfowl, and a very modest visitor’s center staffed that day by Colby Hawkinson, a visitor specialist who is about the most enthusiastic and kid friendly I have ever met. On our visit the island was mostly frozen with a light dusting of snow which made the frozen marsh even more beautiful than usual.

If you go for the day, save time for a visit to Rock Hall’s Mainstreet, including a stop for ice cream and penny candy at Durding’s Store and a hot beverage Java Rock (which also has an admirable wine selection considering you are at the outer edge of the world). And for fellow history dorks, as you drive out from Chestertown, look for the sign for Caulk’s Field – a well preserved battlefield from a little-known skirmish during the war of 1812.

The Trail Less Technical

On a recent hike in Colorado I came upon this funny sign which, for whatever reason, reminded me of Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken. That night I could not help but re- write on a cocktail napkin as I sat, glad that I had in fact had taken The Trail Less Technical.

Two trails diverged in a scenic wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as could
To where it bent down steeper rock

Then took the other much more fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was flatter and gave me less wear
Though as for the passing there
Had worn them both about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how my knee did ache
I doubted the other I would ever take

Somewhere that night sipping a beer,
Without much pain and enjoying a steak
I took the trail “less technical”
Realizing the wise choice that I did make.